Kiss the Sky
by Miranda Crystal-Bearer
Summary: Let me die on my own terms. A glimpse into what could have been and what is...or is it?


Kiss me while I'm still alive Kill me while I kiss the sky Let me die on my own terms Let me live and let me learn Now I follow my own way And I'll live on to another damn day Freedom carries sacrifice Remember when this was my life **--"Life on My Own," Three Doors Down**

* * *

**1922, month 10, day 11**

**Amestris, Central City, Southside**

* * *

Fullmetal tapped his finger against the rifle's trigger, a random patting echoing the rain that had begun an hour after sunset. He and his troupe had been here three hours...another and he'd give this up as a wild-goose-chase. The sun had set two hours ago, and it was getting colder. One of his men shifted beside him, and he nodded a little to him. Fullmetal listened hard, to hear beyond the rain, straining keen senses to a finer edge, to hear...

Footsteps.

It sounded like a large group. Ten at least, twenty at the most. Fullmetal settled back, stopped tapping his finger. His men reacted to him, falling into readiness. He waited, finger set firmly against the trigger. About fifteen men, uniformed in military style, walked out of the gloom, illumined by the flickering streetlamp. They were bold, or just drunk--they walked under the streetlamp.

"First volley, fire," Fullmetal said, softly, clearly, and pulled the trigger.

Silenced gunshots came from all around him, and down on the street, five men dropped instantly. There was a moment of bewilderment below, a sudden frantic stirring.

"First, reload, second volley, fire," Fullmetal ordered, still clear and soft. Above his head, the second row of men fired. Four men below dropped, a fifth only nicked. Fullmetal readied his rifle, set it to his shoulder again, and watched down the sights. "First volley, fire."

He got off his shot before the men below retaliated, sighting their enemy on the top of the abandoned store. Shots rang out from below, and Fullmetal dropped into a crouch, a hand flicking for his men to do the same. It was too late for one--he was down and groaning. The second volley waited for his order, as bullets whined past them again. He opened his mouth to give the order, and felt the shock as he was shot.

The concussion rocked him back, off his feet, into the man behind him. The burning pain flared through his belly, intense enough to taste as blood in his mouth. Gut-shot, he thought, almost dispassionately. Painful, but he could still live...

Darkness slammed up to meet him with a force like the shot.

* * *

**1914, month 10, day 11**

**Amestris, Central City**

* * *

"Fullmetal, what are you doing here?" Colonel Roy Mustang demanded.

The blonde teenager grinned, crooked and sharp. "I met Havoc in the hall, and thought I'd come along."

Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc saluted sheepishly. "I was outranked, sir, " he said in response to Roy's glare.

Roy rolled his eyes and growled about incompetent idiots. "Well, Fullmetal, I expect you to stay back behind ranks. This is a raid against an unstable alchemist, not a playday for green soldiers."

Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, raised an eyebrow at that. "I've fought before."

"Not in ranks, under orders, and not against insane alchemists," First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye retorted, but gently. "Please, Edward, stay back."

Edward sighed, and looked up at his brother, Alphonse. The suit of armor that was his brother shrugged. "I see their point, brother. We should do as they say."

"Fine," Edward growled, and looked very put out, but he fell back behind ranks as ordered. Alphonse followed meekly.

Roy sighed, a little, then set once again to arranging his soldiers. There was no telling what awaited them inside. He wanted to be prepared for anything, be it human, beast, or chimera. The house, when they entered, was ominously quiet. There was no resistance, no traps. The house was dusty, uncared for, but the walls were covered in alchemic theory and circles, written in both chalk and blood. Roy shuddered. The house had a heavy feel to it, something thick with blood and insanity.

When they entered the living room, Roy could feel the after-energy of a transmutation shiver over his skin. Chalk-dust was thick in clouds along the floor, hot with the leftover energy. To one side was a jumbled heap of what had once--Roy guessed--been human. Several of the soldiers shifted away from it, uneasy. Roy looked to the array, certain he would find a failed transmutation, something horridly gone wrong to rebound so on its creator.

Instead there was a slender, lean, perfectly human form crumpled in the center of the array, looking like a dropped doll. It was clothed in all black, and a blonde ponytail lay across the floor like a fraying ribbon. Roy hesitated, and there was a murmur among the soldiers. One stepped forward and draped his coat over the obviously dead alchemist, nervously. No-one offered to get near the circle, and what lay within.

There was motion behind him, and Roy looked over to see Edward push up beside Roy's elbow. "You...what's that?" Edward's clear contralto voice rang above the silence, young and curious.

"I don't know," Roy answered, then stiffened, putting an arm in front of the teenager.

The form in the circle shifted, a hand pressed just below the ribs to the right, and groaned softly. The slender hand suddenly lifted away, and the person--creature?--opened its eyes, looking at its hand. With a motion liquid and easy, it sat up, and began a methodical check for what Roy could only assume were weapons. The pair of handguns, one holstered on either hip, was a clear threat. Finally, it stood, lean, maybe all of five feet tall, clothed all in black, with a high blonde ponytail down to its shoulderblades. It turned, slowly, surveying the dimly-lit room. It stopped, however, when it saw Roy. Roy hissed in a breath.

Those eyes were golden, the exact hue and shine of a coin. They watched Roy out of a face delicately structured, a lean face to match the whipcord body. They were hard eyes in an even harder face, the experienced face of a soldier, a face without emotion.

Beside Roy, Edward shifted, as though to move, and Roy said reflexively, "Fullmetal."

The man--thing?--looked up sharply. There was a moment of silence. "Who are you, and why do you know my name?" it asked, in a voice masculine, a tenor clear and resonant, but devoid of emotion.

Roy blinked, and looked the man up and down. "What do you mean?" he asked, after a moment.

"Fullmetal. You said my name. I won't ask how you know it, but I will ask how you know it's mine." The man was still, completely, but it was a dangerous stillness. "People don't often put my face with my name so easily, unless they know me. And I sure as -- don't know you."

"Your name is Fullmetal?" Roy felt rather incredulous.

"Yes." Those gold eyes stared him down. "Who are you?"

"Colonel Roy Mustang."

The man--Fullmetal--laughed, a sharp, harsh sound. "Impossible. Mustang died ten years ago."

"What?" This from Edward, at Roy's elbow.

"Yes. He's dead." Suddenly those eyes narrowed, the body tensed. "Unless you're a trick of the Furher's. Nice trick, if it is. I suppose that would mean he's figured out how to use bodies dead for years. --. It's hard enough fighting -- corpses that were your -- friends two days ago." He set a hand on the gun at his right hip. "And I suppose that kid is supposed to keep me from blowing your -- brains out? Too bad, I'm not some -- green soldier. I've shot through -- kids before."

"Whoa, wait a minute," Roy snapped. "What is all this about?"

The man relaxed. "If you don't know what the -- I'm talking about, then you're not an enemy." He smiled, and it was hard, sharp. "They all lose their face when I start explaining the -- Furher's tricks. Nobody likes fighting -- corpses."

"How would you fight dead people?" Edward asked, sounding disgusted.

The man shrugged. "Beats the -- out of me. We're still tryin' to -- figure it out. It's not a chimera, and it's not a Homunculous. We can at least kill it, and that's all we -- know." He looked Edward up and down, once. "Y'know, you look an awful lot like he did."

"Like who?"

"Like Edward Elric used to." The man laughed, that harsh sound devoid of mirth. "He's been dead ten years, though. He and his brother." He shook his head. "And a -- lucky thing, too. Otherwise we'd have a -- counter-revolution, and we can't -- handle that right now. We're doing -- poor as it is."

"What do you mean?" Roy asked. "But you...you said you were Fullmetal. Aren't you Edward Elric?"

"-- no! He died!" Those eyes became sharp, and some emotion, faint, entered that voice. "He and Alphonse died ten -- years ago. I'm Fullmetal, and that's the only name I answer to."

"How did they die?" Roy pressed.

"Everyone -- knows that. Alphonse died when Edward failed to transmute him back into his body. And Edward is dead. That's all." Those eyes were dangerous, and Roy could almost name that emotion. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but the man cut him off. "You -- want to know how he -- died, don't you. --, I'll tell you. He committed suicide. I've got -- proof, too." The man, with quick, abrupt motions, began rolling up his sleeves.

Desperation, Roy realized, that's what that emotion was. The man finished with his sleeves, then shoved his arms out for Roy to see, palms up. "That's how Edward died. I'm Fullmetal, and that's the only name I answer to. Edward is dead, and he left me these to -- remember him by."

On each proffered forearm, from wrist to elbow, ran a thin narrow scar. White with age, the scars traced the exact path of the veins up each arm. Each scar was a single, smooth line, and Roy felt that great pain was needed for such a deliberate cut that would leave such an even scar. The man--Fullmetal--rolled his sleeves back down and offered them a cool glare.

"Happy now? You should be, I don't often tell that story." Fullmetal smiled that sharp smile that had nothing to do with joy. It faded as he looked around the room again. "You don't seem to know too -- much, but I'm sure you can tell me where the -- I am."

"In Central, in Amestris," Roy answered.

Fullmetall rolled his eyes. "Coulda guessed that much. Your accent tells me THAT. Precisely where in the wide realm of Central am I, which quarter, and why am I here instead of leading my sniper nest back to safety?"

"Which quarter?" Roy repeated. "I don't know what you mean by that."

"Eastside, Westside, Southside, Nothside, just like the compass. Street names don't do much good anymore, nobody keeping track of what's blocked, what's -- blown up, and what's clear." Fullmetal shifted his weight, the motion smooth and predatory. "You know, you're just too clueless. I don't -- like this. You say you're Mustang. You look a little like him. That kid with you looks way too much like Edward Elric."

"I AM Edward Elric!" Edward burst out, looking annoyed and confused, a peculiar mix.

Fullmetal looked at him, sharp and hard. Roy flinched from the look, and Edward took a step back.

"What year is it?" The man's voice was quiet, but perfectly clear.

"1914," Roy answered.

"--." Fullmetal shook his head. "It's supposed to be 1922." Then it seemed he caught sight of the circle he stood in. He turned around, eyes on the floor. "Hmm. This makes everything -- -- clearer. Lessee, symbol for chimera, dog, snake...aw --." He turned a second time, muttering rapidly under his breath. "Must have been a gender mistake. I take it whoever did this is scrambled in the head...or just -- scrambled, now."

Roy blinked. "What?"

"A snake-dog chimera. Works only if you use the same gender--two females, two males, whatever. Hard as -- to do." Fullmetal grinned. "And this guy wrote all his symbols in clockwise. You have to write 'em widdershins. -- tricky, but you'd be -- surprised at how -- well it works. You can get a transmutation as -- near close to perfect as it gets."

"What's widdershins?" Edward asked, bold again.

"Counter-clockwise." Fullmetal studied the floor. "You're -- lucky he didn't succeed. We did, and -- if those chimeras aren't nothing but a -- nuisance. -- snogs."

"What?" Roy was getting tired of asking questions.

"Snogs...snake-dogs. Old man Jekel transmuted a desert cobra and a rabbit-hound together. Closest transmutation to absolute perfection since his caws. The first chimeras were bad enough...useless, wild, bite and saliva poisonous. Then they bred."

"But chimeras can't breed," Roy protested.

Fullmetal grinned his sharp hard smile. "Perfect ones can. Has to be a same-gender transmutation, though. Anyway, his snogs got loose and bred. They're a -- nuisance, but they don't breed fast, or we'd all be gone, Furher's men and free-fighters all." He shrugged. "And they're easy to kill."

"How in the world do you get a perfect chimera? We've been trying for years." Edward looked confused.

"Same -- way you get a -- perfect Homunculous. With a -- of a lot of power, bizarre arrays, and a -- Stone." Fullmetal shrugged. "And you have to be desperate as --. You done asking questions? I have to get back. We're moving Rose and the kids to Westside tonight, and they can't do it without me."

"How do you intend to get back? We don't even know how you got here," Roy protested.

"You know Rose?" Edward asked right under Roy.

"Simple. I open the -- Gate and go through. Whether or not I'll be dead on my side is anyone's guess. I remember getting shot." Fullmetal shrugged. "And yeah, I know Rose. Pretty -- well, all things considered." Here he smiled, and it was somehow warmer than the others. "Done yet? I haven't got any time."

Edward stepped forward. "Two more questions. How do you intend to open the gate, and how did Alphonse's transmutation fail?"

Fullmetal flinched at the second question, smile gone abruptly. "--, kid, you don't ask the easy ones. Edward failed to transmute his brother, because he just didn't have enough -- power. And that -- Gate gave him back all his limbs instead." Fullmetal shrugged. "And I'll open the gate with this."

The man reached into his shirt, and withdrew a fine, thin chain. A tiny glass vial was hung on the chain. The vial was filled with a liquid red, luminescient, that flowed and moved in ways at odds with how water or any other liquid should move. Roy could feel the power of it from where he stood. It was a Philosopher's Stone, and one that had to be almost perfect.

"That's..." whispered Edward.

"A Stone." Fullmetal grinned. "Used to be Envy's, but he's not around to claim it anymore. Left me the Stone and this." He pointed to a scar on his neck. "Now, I'm going back."

He clapped his hands together. Energy--not the clean blue of Edward's, but a bitter red-black--flowed around him, lit his features eerily, made the Stone at his neck glow bright as a sunburst. Roy tossed an arm up, to shield his eyes. He thought the light turned golden, for a brief moment, but then it was gone. The strange man was gone as well. In his place was a mutilated pile of flesh. It might have been a chimera, Roy thought, catching a glimpse of a snake's head and a dog's paw.

Edward chose that chance to sway uncertainly, face white as a sheet, and collapse. Roy turned his attention to the teenager, and for a while forgot about the strange visitor.

* * *

**1922, month 10, day 11-12**

**Amestris, Central City, Westside**

* * *

Fullmetal hugged Rose, and kissed her lightly. "Safe and sound," he whispered.

"Until we need to move again," she whispered back. The children were sleeping, and it was near dawn. "I hope we don't move for a few weeks. I'm almost due."

"I know. I'm counting the days." Fullmetal laid a hand over the swell of her belly. "What will we name this one?"

Rose chuckled, and kissed him again. "I think there are two of them, and that's why I'm so much fatter this time around. Al and Trish didn't give me this much trouble." A caw--tortiseshell, one of Fullmetal's personal flock--pawed at her leg and croaked.

Fullmetal leaned over and picked up the crow-cat chimera. It--she he realized, recognizing the markings--tried to purr, in its scratchy, raspy way. "Well, we ought to be here for at least a month. You're due in about another week, right? I hope it's enough time."

"I hope so, too." She smiled, tired, but sweet, and shook her head. "Put your stupid caw down and come to bed with me."

"Hey, Lacy is one of the smarter ones," he answered, laughing, setting the chimera down and going to his wife. He kissed her, full and sweet, and they went to bed. Dawn rose over the war-torn nation of Amestris as they slept.

* * *

**A/N:**Confused yet? Yeah, so'm I. They just showed up with drama and angst. And total weirdness. And snogs. (Laughs)


End file.
